"Of course I am doing my bit in other respects too," he concluded. "I have fed some of these German editors from the States at my own table, and —— bad manners they had too; and I have baited them with minor orders in plenty. If Ridder behaves himself I will make him a 'von' some day, and that German Congressman from Missouri—I forget his name—will get a five-pronged coronet too. But to return to Curaçao. If I get a foothold there, I will have both French and English for neighbours—excellent chances for picking a quarrel if desirable."
The War Lord put a finger down vigorously on the Wedell—and Adjutant von Moltke buttons. The nephew of the great Field Marshal responded almost instantly. "I want Wedell."
"Count Wedell is in waiting, Your Majesty." Even while the equerry spoke, the sign language of the telephone announced that the Chief was at the Schloss.
"That Jew of yours will be useful," said Wilhelm approvingly. "He will obey orders like Krupp, but remember His Majesty can't do all the reconnoitring himself. I tell you for the hundredth time that your department is negligent with respect to England. You must get Ballin to help you."
Count Wedell winced. "If I have had the misfortune to fall short of Your Majesty's expectations——" he stuttered.
"'My resignation is, etc.' The old Wedell complaint; I know what you want to say. Only recently I stopped your cousin's litany by remarking: 'I thought you liked your salary and perquisites.' None of that nonsense, please. Listen: I have played sleuth for you at Portsmouth; I know the dockyards there like my pocket. The Solent and Cowes are open books to my General Staff, owing to descriptive matter and diagrams I have furnished, and what I did not tell Tirpitz about Gibraltar is not worth knowing. Really," he added, "English naïveté is astonishing, particularly in the face of the Press campaign. With the most widely circulated and best informed newspapers constantly reminding them that my whole naval policy is directed against Great Britain, English officials—military, naval and civilian—extend me every opportunity for the study of old England's defence and weakness. Thanks to my inspection, my General Staff is as well informed about the Gibraltar signal station as the first English Sea Lord—it is to laugh.
"And how they opened their ports to me: Leith, Port Victoria, Folkestone were as free to the Hohenzollern as Piccadilly Circus.
"The next time I visit Edward I will drive my yacht right up above Tilbury. See if I don't."
"Poor devil of a pilot," mocked Count Wedell.
"Now, don't credit the English War Office with more circumspection than the average German schoolboy has," guffawed Wilhelm; "the pilot will probably get the V.C., and I promise Tirpitz some astounding information for, while on the bridge, I will pump the pilot dry—absolutely dry.